FIRE IT UP Andrew Feinberg, Francine Stephens and their daughter, Prue, at Frannys. Credit
Evan Sung for The New York Times

ALMOST from the moment it opened in 2004, Franny’s had followers so ardent that they seemed to be willing themselves into their swoon over the place. Their unfettered enthusiasm was one of several reasons for skepticism.

Another was their ZIP code: many lived near Franny’s, which is in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, and you know how Brooklyn boosters can be about their restaurants. Football fans who show up on sub-zero days with bare chests and painted faces have more perspective.

And it was hard to fathom their passion when they had such difficulty making the food sound special.

To the first question the answer is no; to the second, an emphatic yes.

Other restaurants have honorable pies, admirable lettuces or noteworthy salumi. But take it from a cranky Franny’s doubter, now a besotted Franny’s believer: not many do all three with as much joy and distinction as Franny’s.

Besides which, Franny’s does more. In June it reinstated pasta dishes on its menu. A few had been there in the beginning but were quickly jettisoned, because Franny’s chef, Andrew Feinberg, didn’t think he’d mastered them.

Now his kitchen has new equipment, while he has new confidence. So it’s pasta once again, and the rigatoncini with peppery pork sausage and sweet cipollini onions will have you hoping it’s pasta forever.

The lengthened menu makes Franny’s feel more fully formed, though you could subtract the pasta and still be left with plenty to savor and celebrate. Even in this era of Greenmarket reverence and food-miles shame, not many restaurants put as high a premium on seasonality and freshness as Franny’s does.

Artisanal pizza may be all the rage, but it’s the rare pizzaiolo who spreads dough thin enough and gets a brick oven hot enough to produce the gorgeous blisters like those on Franny’s best pies. And the restaurant’s soppressata has a suppleness that would make Armandino Batali blush.

Franny’s simplicity is deceptive. The restaurant finds transcendence in dishes and genres that wouldn’t seem to yield so readily to invention or open the door to so much pleasure.

For a Franny’s crostino no mere caponata will do. The crostino I had on a recent night was topped with porky, fatty pancetta — cured in the basement, along with the soppressata — and a house-made peach butter that simultaneously amplified the meat’s richness and provided some sweet relief from it.

A clam pizza at Franny’s isn’t one of those clumsy pies studded with shells that force you to embark on an odyssey of deconstruction and reconstruction.

The clams have already been liberated and placed on a thick amalgam of clam juice and cream — a doubly clammy whammy. If you ever loved a bivalve, you owe yourself this romance.

Mr. Feinberg owns Franny’s with his wife, Francine Stephens, for whom the restaurant is named. And although Franny’s has plenty of polish — a sophisticated Italian wine list, a manicured garden out back, a long mirrored brick wall more urban-chic than rustic — it retains a certain mom and pop soul, though the mom and pop in this version are notably young and idealistic.

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Pasta with mussels.Credit
Evan Sung for The New York Times

Ms. Stephens is 35, Mr. Feinberg is 32, and they have a year-old daughter, with a sibling en route. The couple clearly want Franny’s to be an open-hearted, accessible place, and to that end there’s not a menu item over $17. And the restaurant doesn’t take reservations.

This policy creates predictable chaos, but it also seems to encourage a diverse crowd: families with small children early in the evening, tattooed hipsters later on. They can drop by on a whim and have the same chance at a table as anyone else.

Franny’s has its vanity. Turn over the menu and you’ll learn the provenance of not only the restaurant’s organic ingredients but its conservation-oriented energy supply (“35% New Wind and 65% Small Hydroelectric”).

I didn’t need to be told in writing that milk from Evans’ Farmhouse Creamery is “rich and creamy just like Mother Nature intended before homogenization.” I could taste its splendor in the fantastic fior di latte gelato on Franny’s brief list of desserts.

Several of those desserts — the cannoli, the chocolate sorbet — are underwhelming, as are a few of the dishes on the menu’s “small plates” and “plates” sections, where the crostini are found and the salads predominate. Although I loved the sulfur beans and salsa verde with wood-roasted octopus, the octopus itself could have been more tender.

You may not even encounter this dish. Franny’s menu seems to change almost hourly, reflecting the real value Mr. Feinberg and his chef de cuisine, Joshua McFadden, place on using the best ingredients they can rustle up at a given moment.

Mr. McFadden arrived this year, having worked at Franny’s in the early days and then left for other restaurants, including Momofuku Ssam Bar and Lupa. Ms. Stephens and Mr. Feinberg said Mr. McFadden’s experience at the latter restaurant is partly why Franny’s can now do pasta right.

Right, but not flawlessly. A pork ragù in one dish was slightly gummy, and the restaurant’s apparent determination not to overcook noodles leads to undercooking them at times.

But the carbonara sauce on top of al dente bucatini was almost ideal, neither stinting on eggy richness nor turning the bucatini into a gluey mess. Equally on target was the saltiness of pasta alla chitarra with butter and bottarga.

Franny’s earliest supporters weren’t impulsive. They were prescient, and they’re going to have to keep making room for more recruits to the religion.

HOURS From 5:30 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and to 11:30 p.m. Friday. From noon to 11:30 p.m. Saturday and to 10 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday.

RESERVATIONS Not accepted.

CREDIT CARDS Visa and MasterCard.

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Restaurant and accessible restroom on street level.

WHAT THE STARS MEAN Ratings range from zero to four stars and reflect the reviewer’s reaction to food, ambience and service, with price taken into consideration. Menu listings and prices are subject to change.